Face-off: 1900 ET, 07/04/2022
Arena: Canadian Tire Centre
The Ottawa Senators are on a three-game winning streak and look to extend that as they attempt to end a disappointing season on a high note.
Nashville, on the other hand, are right in the mix for playoff spots in the Western Conference.
They currently occupy the first wild card place and a victory here will help them in the race to the post-season.
We think the visitors will have too much class and 5.0 for them to win by three goals heads our Ottawa Senators vs Nashville Predators predictions.
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Ottawa Senators Odds
Josh Norris scored his first career hat-trick to pace the Senators to a second straight 5-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday.
That took Norris’ total to 30 for the season – a career high for the 22-year-old centre.
And what made it even sweeter for Norris was that it was against the team he grew up supporting.
Norris said: “It was the team I idolised. Guys like Datsyuk and Zetterberg and Lidstrom, those were kind of the big guys when I was growing up as a kid.”
Senators captain Brady Tkachuk was full of praise for Norris, who becomes a restricted free agent at the end of the season.
Tkachuk said: “It’s impressive. He’s hot right now. Anytime he touches the puck, it’s got a chance of going in.”
It was then Tkachuk’s turn to shine in Tuesday’s 6-3 triumph at Montreal, grabbing a goal and two assists.
Ottawa’s focus is on next season but they can feed off their recent hot streak to get the first goal of the game here.
That is available at 2.1 in the Ottawa Senators vs Nashville Predators odds.
Nashville Predators Odds
Nashville’s Roman Josi is having a career season, being named the NHL’s first star of the month for March and leading all defenceman with 84 points from 19 goals and 65 assists through 67 games.
Josi could become the first defenceman to record 100 points in a season since Brian Leetch of the New York Rangers in the 1991-92 campaign and he would be only the sixth player to achieve that feat.
The Swiss ace had a goal and two assists as the Predators beat the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday.
Nashville have won three of their last four as they hunt down the St Louis Blues for third in the Central Division.
Forward Matt Duchene insists that having something to play for is what drives the Predators on.
“We thrive on hard, fast, competitive hockey,” Duchene said. “We thrive on it, meaningful hockey.
“We’re a team that, earlier in the year, some of the top teams were beating us. We addressed it, talked about it.
“Since then, it’s been the ability to get our game up to the top level. That’s us in a nutshell.”
And with the playoffs race heating up, 2.45 for a Predators win with over 5.5 goals is added to our NHL predictions.
Additional stats
Last result:
Montreal 3-6 OTTAWA
NASHVILLE 6-2 Minnesota
Season head-to-head: Nashville 4-1 Ottawa
